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Author Joffe, T.H.; Dunbar, R.I. doi  openurl
  Title Visual and socio-cognitive information processing in primate brain evolution Type Journal Article
  Year 1997 Publication Proceedings. Biological Sciences / The Royal Society Abbreviated Journal Proc Biol Sci  
  Volume 264 Issue 1386 Pages 1303-1307  
  Keywords Animals; Brain/anatomy & histology/*physiology; Cognition/physiology; *Evolution; Geniculate Bodies/anatomy & histology/physiology; Humans; Mental Processes/physiology; Neocortex/physiology; Primates/anatomy & histology/*physiology/*psychology; *Social Behavior; Visual Cortex/anatomy & histology/physiology  
  Abstract Social group size has been shown to correlate with neocortex size in primates. Here we use comparative analyses to show that social group size is independently correlated with the size of non-V1 neocortical areas, but not with other more proximate components of the visual system or with brain systems associated with emotional cueing (e.g. the amygdala). We argue that visual brain components serve as a social information 'input device' for socio-visual stimuli such as facial expressions, bodily gestures and visual status markers, while the non-visual neocortex serves as a 'processing device' whereby these social cues are encoded, interpreted and associated with stored information. However, the second appears to have greater overall importance because the size of the V1 visual area appears to reach an asymptotic size beyond which visual acuity and pattern recognition may not improve significantly. This is especially true of the great ape clade (including humans), that is known to use more sophisticated social cognitive strategies.  
  Address School of Life Sciences, University of Liverpool, UK  
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  Language English Summary Language Original Title  
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  ISSN (down) 0962-8452 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:9332015 Approved no  
  Call Number Serial 2095  
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Author Shultz, S.; Dunbar, R.I.M. url  doi
openurl 
  Title Both social and ecological factors predict ungulate brain size Type Journal Article
  Year 2006 Publication Proceedings. Biological Sciences / The Royal Society Abbreviated Journal Proc Biol Sci  
  Volume 273 Issue 1583 Pages 207-215  
  Keywords Animals; Artiodactyla/*anatomy & histology/*physiology; Brain/*anatomy & histology/physiology; *Ecosystem; Organ Size; Perissodactyla/*anatomy & histology/*physiology; *Social Behavior  
  Abstract Among mammals, the members of some Orders have relatively large brains. Alternative explanations for this have emphasized either social or ecological selection pressures favouring greater information-processing capacities, including large group size, greater foraging efficiency, higher innovation rates, better invasion success and complex problem solving. However, the focal taxa for these analyses (primates, carnivores and birds) often show both varied ecological competence and social complexity. Here, we focus on the specific relationship between social complexity and brain size in ungulates, a group with relatively simple patterns of resource use, but extremely varied social behaviours. The statistical approach we used, phylogenetic generalized least squares, showed that relative brain size was independently associated with sociality and social complexity as well as with habitat use, while relative neocortex size is associated with social but not ecological factors. A simple index of sociality was a better predictor of both total brain and neocortex size than group size, which may indicate that the cognitive demands of sociality depend on the nature of social relationships as well as the total number of individuals in a group.  
  Address School of Biological Sciences, University of Liverpool, Biosciences Building, Crown Street, Liverpool L69 7ZB, UK. susanne.shultz@liv.ac.uk  
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  Language English Summary Language Original Title  
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  ISSN (down) 0962-8452 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:16555789 Approved no  
  Call Number Serial 2098  
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Author Wich, S.A.; de Vries, H. doi  openurl
  Title Male monkeys remember which group members have given alarm calls Type Journal Article
  Year 2006 Publication Proceedings. Biological Sciences / The Royal Society Abbreviated Journal Proc Biol Sci  
  Volume 273 Issue 1587 Pages 735-740  
  Keywords Animals; Behavior, Animal/*physiology; Cercopithecidae/*physiology/*psychology; Cognition/physiology; Fear/physiology/*psychology; Female; Indonesia; Male; Vocalization, Animal/*physiology  
  Abstract Primates give alarm calls in response to the presence of predators. In some species, such as the Thomas langur (Presbytis thomasi), males only emit alarm calls if there is an audience. An unanswered question is whether the audience's behaviour influences how long the male will continue his alarm calling. We tested three hypotheses that might explain the alarm calling duration of male Thomas langurs: the fatigue, group size and group member behaviour hypotheses. Fatigue and group size did not influence male alarm calling duration. We found that males only ceased calling shortly after all individuals in his group had given at least one alarm call. This shows that males keep track of and thus remember which group members have called.  
  Address Behavioural Biology, Utrecht University, Padualaan 14, 3584 Utrecht, The Netherlands. s.a.wich@bio.uu.nl  
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  Language English Summary Language Original Title  
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  ISSN (down) 0962-8452 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:16608694 Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 2816  
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Author Healy, S.D.; Braham, S.R.; Braithwaite, V.A. doi  openurl
  Title Spatial working memory in rats: no differences between the sexes Type Journal Article
  Year 1999 Publication Proceedings. Biological Sciences / The Royal Society Abbreviated Journal Proc Biol Sci  
  Volume 266 Issue 1435 Pages 2303-2308  
  Keywords Animals; Estrus/metabolism; Female; Male; Memory/*physiology; Rats; Sex Factors; Swimming  
  Abstract In a number of mammalian species, males appear to have superior spatial abilities to females. The favoured explanations for this cognitive difference are hormonal, with higher testosterone levels in males than females leading to better spatial performance, and evolutionary, where sexual selection has favoured males with increased spatial abilities for either better navigational skills in hunting or to enable an increased territory size. However, an alternative explanation for this sex difference focuses on the role of varying levels of oestrogen in females in spatial cognition (the 'fertility and parental care' hypothesis). One possibility is that varying oestrogen levels result in variation in spatial learning and memory so that, when tested across the oestrous cycle, females perform as well as males on days of low oestrogen but more poorly on days of high oestrogen. If day in the oestrous cycle is not taken into account then, across an experiment, any sex differences found would always produce male superiority. We used a spatial working memory task in a Morris water maze to test the spatial learning and memory abilities of male and female rats. The rats were tested across a number of consecutive days during which the females went through four oestrous cycles. We found no overall sex differences in latencies to reach a submerged platform in a Morris water maze but, on the day of oestrus (low oestrogen), females took an extra swim to learn the platform's location (a 100% increase over the other days in the cycle). Female swim speed also varied across the oestrous cycle but females were no less active on the day of oestrus. These results oppose the predictions of the fertility and parental care hypothesis.  
  Address Department of Psychology, University of Newcastle, UK. s.healey@ed.ac.uk  
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  Language English Summary Language Original Title  
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  ISSN (down) 0962-8452 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:10629980 Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 2818  
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Author Arlettaz, R.; Patthey, P.; Baltic, M.; Leu, T.; Schaub, M.; Palme, R.; Jenni-Eiermann, S. doi  openurl
  Title Spreading free-riding snow sports represent a novel serious threat for wildlife Type Journal Article
  Year 2007 Publication Proceedings. Biological Sciences / The Royal Society Abbreviated Journal Proc Biol Sci  
  Volume 274 Issue 1614 Pages 1219-1224  
  Keywords  
  Abstract Stress generated by humans on wildlife by continuous development of outdoor recreational activities is of increasing concern for biodiversity conservation. Human disturbance often adds to other negative impact factors affecting the dynamics of vulnerable populations. It is not known to which extent the rapidly spreading free-riding snow sports actually elicit detrimental stress (allostatic overload) upon wildlife, nor what the potential associated fitness and survival costs are. Using a non-invasive technique, we evaluated the physiological stress response induced by free-riding snow sports on a declining bird species of Alpine ecosystems. The results of a field experiment in which radiomonitored black grouse (Tetrao tetrix) were actively flushed from their snow burrows once a day during four consecutive days showed an increase in the concentration of faecal stress hormone (corticosterone) metabolites after disturbance. A large-scale comparative analysis across the southwestern Swiss Alps indicated that birds had higher levels of these metabolites in human-disturbed versus undisturbed habitats. Disturbance by snow sport free-riders appears to elevate stress, which potentially represents a new serious threat for wildlife. The fitness and survival costs of allostatic adjustments have yet to be estimated.  
  Address Zoological Institute, Division of Conservation Biology, University of Bern, Baltzerstrasse 6, 3012 Bern, Switzerland. raphael.arlettaz@nat.unibe.ch  
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  Language English Summary Language Original Title  
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  ISSN (down) 0962-8452 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:17341459 Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 4075  
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Author Whiten, A.; van Schaik, C.P. doi  openurl
  Title The evolution of animal 'cultures' and social intelligence Type Journal Article
  Year 2007 Publication Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences Abbreviated Journal Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci  
  Volume 362 Issue 1480 Pages 603-620  
  Keywords  
  Abstract Decades-long field research has flowered into integrative studies that, together with experimental evidence for the requisite social learning capacities, have indicated a reliance on multiple traditions ('cultures') in a small number of species. It is increasingly evident that there is great variation in manifestations of social learning, tradition and culture among species, offering much scope for evolutionary analysis. Social learning has been identified in a range of vertebrate and invertebrate species, yet sustained traditions appear rarer, and the multiple traditions we call cultures are rarer still. Here, we examine relationships between this variation and both social intelligence-sophisticated information processing adapted to the social domain-and encephalization. First, we consider whether culture offers one particular confirmation of the social ('Machiavellian') intelligence hypothesis that certain kinds of social life (here, culture) select for intelligence: 'you need to be smart to sustain culture'. Phylogenetic comparisons, particularly focusing on our own study animals, the great apes, support this, but we also highlight some paradoxes in a broader taxonomic survey. Second, we use intraspecific variation to address the converse hypothesis that 'culture makes you smart', concluding that recent evidence for both chimpanzees and orang-utans support this proposition.  
  Address Centre for Social Learning and Cognitive Evolution, School of Psychology, University of St Andrews, St Andrews KY16 9JP, UK  
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  Language English Summary Language Original Title  
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  ISSN (down) 0962-8436 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:17255007 Approved no  
  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 729  
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Author Dunbar, R.I.M.; Shultz, S. doi  openurl
  Title Understanding primate brain evolution Type Journal Article
  Year 2007 Publication Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences Abbreviated Journal Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci  
  Volume 362 Issue 1480 Pages 649-658  
  Keywords  
  Abstract We present a detailed reanalysis of the comparative brain data for primates, and develop a model using path analysis that seeks to present the coevolution of primate brain (neocortex) and sociality within a broader ecological and life-history framework. We show that body size, basal metabolic rate and life history act as constraints on brain evolution and through this influence the coevolution of neocortex size and group size. However, they do not determine either of these variables, which appear to be locked in a tight coevolutionary system. We show that, within primates, this relationship is specific to the neocortex. Nonetheless, there are important constraints on brain evolution; we use path analysis to show that, in order to evolve a large neocortex, a species must first evolve a large brain to support that neocortex and this in turn requires adjustments in diet (to provide the energy needed) and life history (to allow sufficient time both for brain growth and for 'software' programming). We review a wider literature demonstrating a tight coevolutionary relationship between brain size and sociality in a range of mammalian taxa, but emphasize that the social brain hypothesis is not about the relationship between brain/neocortex size and group size per se; rather, it is about social complexity and we adduce evidence to support this. Finally, we consider the wider issue of how mammalian (and primate) brains evolve in order to localize the social effects.  
  Address British Academy Centenary Research Project, School of Biological Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 7ZB, UK. rimd@liv.ac.uk  
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  Language English Summary Language Original Title  
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  ISSN (down) 0962-8436 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:17301028 Approved no  
  Call Number Serial 2099  
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Author Sinha, A. doi  openurl
  Title Knowledge acquired and decisions made: triadic interactions during allogrooming in wild bonnet macaques, Macaca radiata Type Journal Article
  Year 1998 Publication Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences Abbreviated Journal Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci  
  Volume 353 Issue 1368 Pages 619-631  
  Keywords Aggression; Animals; Cognition; Computer Simulation; Decision Making; Evolution; Female; Grooming; Logistic Models; Macaca radiata/*psychology; *Social Behavior; Social Dominance  
  Abstract The pressures of developing and maintaining intricate social relationships may have led to the evolution of enhanced cognitive abilities in many nonhuman primates. Knowledge of the dominance ranks and social relationships of other individuals, in particular, is important in evaluating one's position in the rank hierarchy and affiliative networks. Triadic interactions offer an excellent opportunity to examine whether decisions are taken by individuals on the basis of such knowledge. Allogrooming supplants among wild female bonnet macaques (macaca radiata) usually involved the subordinate female of a grooming dyad retreating at the approach of a female dominant to both members of the dyad. In a few exceptional cases, however, the dominant member of the dyad retreated; simple non-cognitive hypotheses involving dyadic rank differences and agonistic relationships failed to explain this phenomenon. Instead, retreat by the dominant individual was positively correlated with the social attractiveness of her subordinate companion (as measured by the duration of grooming received by the latter from other females in the troop). This suggests that not only does an individual evaluate relationships among other females, but does so on the basis of the amount of grooming received by them. Similarly, the frequency of approaches received by any female was correlated with her social attractiveness when she was the dominant member of the dyad, but not when she was the subordinate. This indicated that approaching females might be aware of the relative dominance ranks of the two allogrooming individuals. In logistic regression analyses, the probability of any individual retreating was found to be influenced more by her knowledge of her rank difference with both the other interactants, rather than by their absolute ranks. Moreover, information about social attractiveness appeared to be used in terms of correlated dominance ranks. The nature of knowledge acquired by bonnet macaque females may thus be egotistical in that other individuals are evaluated relative to oneself, integrative in that information about all other interactants is used simultaneously, and hierarchical in the ability to preferentially use certain categories of knowledge for the storage of related information from other domains.  
  Address National Centre for Biological Sciences, TIFR Centre, Bangalore, India  
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  Language English Summary Language Original Title  
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  ISSN (down) 0962-8436 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:9602536 Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 4362  
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Author Holekamp, K.E.; Sakai, S.T.; Lundrigan, B.L. url  doi
openurl 
  Title Social intelligence in the spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta) Type Journal Article
  Year 2007 Publication Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences Abbreviated Journal Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci  
  Volume 362 Issue 1480 Pages 523-538  
  Keywords Anatomy, Comparative; Animals; Brain/*anatomy & histology; Cercopithecinae/anatomy & histology/*physiology; Decision Making/physiology; Hyaenidae/anatomy & histology/*physiology; *Intelligence; *Recognition (Psychology); *Social Behavior; Species Specificity  
  Abstract If the large brains and great intelligence characteristic of primates were favoured by selection pressures associated with life in complex societies, then cognitive abilities and nervous systems with primate-like attributes should have evolved convergently in non-primate mammals living in large, elaborate societies in which social dexterity enhances individual fitness. The societies of spotted hyenas are remarkably like those of cercopithecine primates with respect to size, structure and patterns of competition and cooperation. These similarities set an ideal stage for comparative analysis of social intelligence and nervous system organization. As in cercopithecine primates, spotted hyenas use multiple sensory modalities to recognize their kin and other conspecifics as individuals, they recognize third-party kin and rank relationships among their clan mates, and they use this knowledge adaptively during social decision making. However, hyenas appear to rely more intensively than primates on social facilitation and simple rules of thumb in social decision making. No evidence to date suggests that hyenas are capable of true imitation. Finally, it appears that the gross anatomy of the brain in spotted hyenas might resemble that in primates with respect to expansion of frontal cortex, presumed to be involved in the mediation of social behaviour.  
  Address Department of Zoology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA. holekamp@msu.edu  
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  ISSN (down) 0962-8436 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:17289649 Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 4719  
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Author Clement, T.S.; Zentall, T.R. openurl 
  Title Development of a single-code/default coding strategy in pigeons Type Journal Article
  Year 2000 Publication Psychological science : a journal of the American Psychological Society / APS Abbreviated Journal Psychol Sci  
  Volume 11 Issue 3 Pages 261-264  
  Keywords Animals; Attention; Columbidae; *Discrimination Learning; Female; Male; *Pattern Recognition, Visual; *Problem Solving; Retention (Psychology)  
  Abstract We tested the hypothesis that pigeons could use a cognitively efficient coding strategy by training them on a conditional discrimination (delayed symbolic matching) in which one alternative was correct following the presentation of one sample (one-to-one), whereas the other alternative was correct following the presentation of any one of four other samples (many-to-one). When retention intervals of different durations were inserted between the offset of the sample and the onset of the choice stimuli, divergent retention functions were found. With increasing retention interval, matching accuracy on trials involving any of the many-to-one samples was increasingly better than matching accuracy on trials involving the one-to-one sample. Furthermore, following this test, pigeons treated a novel sample as if it had been one of the many-to-one samples. The data suggest that rather than learning each of the five sample-comparison associations independently, the pigeons developed a cognitively efficient single-code/default coding strategy.  
  Address Department of Psychology, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506, USA  
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  Language English Summary Language Original Title  
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  ISSN (down) 0956-7976 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:11273414 Approved no  
  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 246  
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